An inside look at the CAD, CAM and CAE industry - by Roopinder Tara

August 12, 2009

Alibre for $99 - Money Isn't Everything

With a drastic price cut to $99 (from $999), Alibre could suffer a variety of outcomes, bracketed by these two extremes:

Nothing happens. Alibre succeeds only in lowering the perception of its
own product as being worth what is paid for it, rather than establish itself as
an incredible deal.

Alibre conquers the MCAD market. In doing so, it redefines a new price
point for MCAD. It's competition goes out of business.

Current MCAD leading vendors will insist on the former. Alibre will hope for
the latter. Most likely, the future will hold something in between.

With the drastic price reduction, Alibre does have an excellent chance of
establishing itself as the clear leader among the also-rans of the MCAD
market, a segment that includes IronCAD, Ashlar, Kompass 3D, SpaceClaim, VX, and
others. But can it challenge SolidWorks, Inventor -- or even Solid Edge -- for
midrange market dominance?

To forecast success based on a price cut alone ignores a myriad of other
factors, least of which is Alibre's own commitment. Chopping 90%
off the core product's price is gutsy, dramatic and bold, but the requirements
leading to a sales and market success are actually far harder.

Now if I were king of Alibre, here is what I would do to ensure success after the dramatic price cut:

Beef up the support -- and don't charge for it.

Focus on robustness. If it is not yet robust, make it so. Then let the
world know. Let the media spread the word about its low cost. It seems they have already started.

Stick with it. Alibre needs to have a $99 deal when customers are actually
buying software -- that is not the case right now.

Users are actually less concerned about the cost than about being able to do
their jobs. Calling Alibre to find out where a command is hidden or
being able to upload a troublesome model and have it fixed would be priceless.
Word of such support would spread like an uncontained virus in this age of social media. Alibre's first thought was probably to
staff up the sales dept to handle the demand and charge for support. But I would
let the orders come in over the Web, forget about trying to upsell for the time
being, and double the support staff.

Robustness is a key issue, whether it is perceived or real. Alibre risks being dismissed outright just for its low price. "How can $99 software do what $3999
software can do?" Alibre is currently saying their software is "virtually" identical to its more expensive counterparts. Big mistake. While it may be true that Alibre can
handle what most mechanical designers would require of it, the company is not
realizing that most users overbuy software. They don't want to be limited. They
don't want to work in fear that one day they will encounter a road block.
Admitting to not being fully capable is tantamount to suggesting to customers
that one day they will fail.

While perceived robustness may be addressed by marketing and PR, real
robustness needs to follow close behind. Alibre has to plug the holes. It has to
be able to keep up with the big boys. That 80/20 rule (get 80% of the capability
for 20% of the cost) may have worked 20 years ago, but these days, people want
it all -- cheaper.

Does Alibre have the stamina and fortitude to pull this off? Disappointing
buy-in could cause the $99 price to be pulled. A twitchy Alibre may not take a
chance that low sales at a $99 price would set up a top line that would eventually doom the
company. But long term success and market penetration will only result if a low
price point is firmly established and sustained. Alibre needs to be ready when
customers are actually ready to buy. That may be months from now -- or more.

Comments

I just baught the 99 package and had used inventor and the free alibre express package. Alibre is easier to use, does 99 percent of what inventor does and is priced at 1-2k perfectly. I've used solid edge also which can do everything (and much better than inventor) but with a package price beginning at 5k is only for those that spend 100% of the time modeling. What about all of us that use these tools 10% of our time? Alibre fits this and is way more progressive in it's interface than inventor will ever be.

Access to a free version of a 3D CAD package cannot be overlooked. Wishing to dabble in some home CAD activity, I eagerly downloaded the free version of Alibre. My background is Pro/Engineer and its functionality (~14 years of experience with the tool).

Using Alibre I attempted to create a CAD model of my house. I first started by creating a sketch of the layout of my home from the certified drawings.

I found the sketch tool to be adequate but not robust. No complaints for a free software. My heartburn, however, soon became manifest.

At least with the free package, and I have no indications what follows is NOT the case for the full up version, you can only reference each sketch for one feature. I could not figure out for the life of me how to create a "datum curve" that I could reference over and over again! The only thing I could find to do was to create datum point features at EVERY CORNER in the sketch - datum points seem to be --and this is my current understanding -- the only way to pass geometry references to subsequent features. I was furious by this limitation and soon lost my enthusiasm for Alibre, free or otherwise. I consider the ability to EASILY reference previous sketches and geometry to be FUNDAMENTAL to a suitable CAD package - you either provide this capability, or you don't bother to get into the 3D CAD business.

Pro/E's top down design implementation addressed a critical need, noting the natural way designers and engineers conceptualize a solution from early phases down to the details, not the other way around. I have since fully integrated this methodology into my day-to-day CAD design activity - it's the way I think.

I found that Alibre did NOT flow naturally from this paradigm. I found it a bit like playing a guitar with a pick for years, and then trying to play the banjo finger-style for the first time.

I did manage to create a garden tool instrument design with Alibre's free version, but was thwarted from a more enjoyable and efficient design experience by the same limitation - poor ability to reference previous geometry.

Curved, elegantly surface geometry is not my strong suit, but Alibre did not "address my pain" is this area - I'm used to cylinders and boxes, and I struggled with THOSE, let alone more complex curves (like a hand garden scoop).

I have not done further research to determine if I am just misusing the software, but I must say I am no slouch when it comes to CAD design, and I really struggled to get efficient use out of the free version of Alibre. I welcome anyone to instruct me on this issue and gladly retract the statements if it was merely a boneheaded misinterpretation of the system on my part.

Not being able to make drawings (an advertised limitation of the free version) made the whole thing seem not worth my time.

Now however, having access to a 3D CAD tool, however limited, by which I can perform SOME level of piece part design and document it, for $99... this might be the right combination of functionality vs cost that even I am willing to consider.